


Sette

by urusai_lilania



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Accidental Kissing, Anxiety, Babies, Bombs, Boys Kissing, Breakfast, Cake, Destruction, Don't copy to another site, Ducks, Explosions, Extreme, Face Punching, Family, Food, Injury, Italian Mafia, Kissing, Late Start, M/M, Major Character Injury, Meddling Kids, Punching, Stress Relief, Swimming, Tutoring, Underwear, Walks In The Park, crybaby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-13 19:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20587598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urusai_lilania/pseuds/urusai_lilania
Summary: Daily life is a struggle for Tsuna. His tutor is a baby hitman, his circle of friends have all been dragged into some sort of twisted "family", and his home is overrun. But not everything is meshing together well in this new reality he faces. But it isn't his place to interfere with others, is it? No matter what they say, he isn't the boss!





	1. Family

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older little series I did a long time ago that I don't mind revisiting for fun, so I'm uploading it!

It was a standard day from hell for Tsunayoshi Sawada, the Tenth Generation boss of the Vongola Mafia Famiglia. Wake up to an arsenal rigged in his room with Lambo—a small, fro-sporting, hyperactive crybaby from the Bovino Famiglia that he had the distinct displeasure of knowing, who had recently officially become a much more permanent part of this hell by being his Lightning Guardian—jumping up and down on his chest, knocking the wind right out of the teenager and demanding cake while I-Pin—a small explosive Chinese girl with poor vision, a distaste for Lambo, and bad breath, who at the very least was beginning to learn better Japanese—flew in from the doorway wanting the same. Greeting from his mother Nana or “Mama” downstairs once he finally got there, only to find Bianchi—a beautiful and deadly Italian woman who used poison cooking techniques, who had been previously attempting to _assassinate_ Tsuna and had yet to officially resign from this role—and Reborn—the hitman “tutor” who had shown up and started all this mess with the Mafia in the first place, one of the Arcobaleno infants—had already begun scarfing most of his food. To make the tiny room even more crowded, Hayato Gokudera—Bianchi’s younger half-brother, an explosives expert, who was seriously hell-bent on being Tsuna’s right-hand man and had at least accomplished becoming his Storm Guardian—and Takeshi Yamamoto—a classmate, one of Tsuna’s few friends at school before this mess began to warp everyone’s brains, who was extremely talented in baseball as well as “the Mafia game” (the boy could be seriously naïve; he had earned the Rain Guardian position one way or another)—had shown up today, so they were let inside to join in on breakfast with the “family”.

Family. Tsuna had really come to find the word terrifying these days. Terrifying and hectic and just plain _exhausting_.

Still… he smiled to himself as he looked at them from the stairwell. Dysfunctional or not, it was pretty… amazing. The thought didn’t get a chance to progress much further as Tsuna suddenly yelped, a piping hot pancake flying up to greet him square in the face. “_Hiiiieeeee_!” he yelled out, dancing in place as he ripped the unwanted thing from his quickly burning skin. Since the two hellions that had accosted him in his bedroom hadn’t _quite_ yet made it down the stairs to have started slinging food, the only culprit would have to be Reborn. Tsuna winced, fanning his face. The baby probably thought he was wasting time day-dreaming or not looking tough enough or some other horribly random reason (most people refer to it as an “excuse”) to try and take Tsuna out with a delicious home-cooked slab of batter.

“Tsu-kun, hurry up and sit down or you’ll miss out!” his mother said, her voice bubbling with amusement. She carefully maneuvered around her guests to replenish the food that was sitting at the center of the table. It was obvious the woman enjoyed having such a full, boisterous home. Her son had made such colorful friends and seemed to be on the whole doing much, much better than he had been. It seemed like ages ago. Walking over to the table, she began setting two extra plates at the end so that I-Pin and Lambo wouldn’t have to try and serve themselves. …It hadn’t gone well in the past. The two children came crashing noisily after Tsuna and then past him, clambering up into their places with vigor.

“Cake, cake!” they chanted excitedly. Nana smiled warmly. Cake hadn’t exactly been a usual portion in her breakfasts before, but she couldn’t help but spoil the two, so of course there was a piece of cake for everyone these days. It wasn’t as though the household was in particular need of money; they lived simply and well thanks to her rarely-home husband Iemitsu, so she could afford to spoil such a large group of guests on a regular basis. Once the two young ones were situated and she had checked everyone’s drinks, she returned to cleaning up the kitchen, lightly humming to herself.

Tsuna walked slowly into the room, still not ready to trust that it wasn’t rigged to attack him or that any more food would fly his way. “Ah, morning, Tsuna!” Yamamoto chimed cheerfully, his bright grin flashing the moment he noticed the spastic boy. “Haha! You sure know how to sleep in, don’t ya?” he added, waving his fork around in the air.

From the other side of the tall boy Gokudera leaned into view, growling plaintively. “Shut up, baseball idiot. Tenth can do as he damn well pleases, even if it means being lazy!” Tsuna blinked in exasperation at the comment; Gokudera would say oddly insulting things without realizing it often, so there wasn’t really any point in being upset at the guy… and besides, it had been said in an attempt to… shield… Tsuna. Somehow. Probably. Gokudera’s logic was not something Tsuna cared to think of much. It gave him a headache within three minutes. Of course, Yamamoto’s utter _lack_ of logic wasn’t much better. It didn’t matter what time of day it was—as long as those two were together, they had energy, they used it, and it never ended. If either of them were to ever wear out it might have been Gokudera, but that was only because he put forth so much _effort_ into their relationship. The thought struck a cord within Tsuna and he fidgeted, still not budging from the doorway.

“Haha, sure, sure,” Yamamoto responded easily, picking up his glass and gulping down the milk that had been placed before him just a minute earlier.

Having disposed of the offending pancake into a wastebasket, Tsuna glanced nervously back to Yamamoto. No longer facing Tsuna, the baseball player was turned to the right slightly as he listened to Gokudera. Tsuna’s view of the boy’s demeanor was mostly obscured by a white eye-patch covering the baseball player’s left eye. “Ah!” Tsuna gasped softly, frowning. He remembered what it was about Gokudera and Yamamoto that was nagging at the back of his mind. His eyes glanced over to Gokudera, who was attempting to demonstrate to his “uncultured”…—_friend_ of course being the wrong word, as Gokudera would never admit such a thing aloud, but he didn’t like calling Yamamoto teammate either...—his uncultured _associate_ how to properly drink from a glass at a breakfast table. Yamamoto grinned sheepishly and began laughing, quickly raising a hand to cover his mouth (apparently he was aware that this was a serious matter for once and that he should in no way find it funny—that or he still had food in his mouth and didn’t want it to fly free and hit Bianchi, who already had limited patience whenever Yamamoto and food were involved) as Gokudera cut him a rather pissed off glare and slammed his milk glass down on the table, spilling it as it sloshed. Hurriedly the aggressive bomber attacked the stack of napkins to sop up the mess he had made, Yamamoto in turn handing him even more, still chuckling.

It didn’t _seem_ any different from normal… for those two, anyway. It wasn’t really any of Tsuna’s business anyway, right? Reborn had told him about it all the night before… though how Reborn already knew was anybody’s guess (Tsuna’s imagination running wild probably couldn’t compete with the truth anyway, and he knew that was how Reborn preferred things). Reborn had then proceeded to tell him that as the boss of the Vongola he should be aware of his guardians’ movements and make sure there was nothing to be concerned about as it could jeopardize not only their personal relationships but the functionality of the family as a whole… but this was Gokudera and Yamamoto they were talking about. It seemed to Tsuna that he should save his concern for the day those two got along, weren’t jibing and leaving a mess of explosions in their wake.

The Arcobaleno in question was sitting in Bianchi’s lap as they shared the same plate to eat; at this point both of them were slowing down, no longer inhaling it all. Bianchi had finally started wearing her goggles habitually so that she wouldn’t upset Gokudera… though, naturally, she was still unaware of her brother’s intolerance of her face. In fact the only real reason she continuously wore them was because Reborn had told her that she looked stylish with them on; all other attempts to trick her into wearing them or flat out _telling_ her the real reason had failed to have an impact on the woman. Cautiously Tsuna sat down at the far end of the table, where Gokudera was on his left and Bianchi on his right. This was by no means an attempt to sit at the head of the table… it was an escape route. It was the farthest spot away from where Nana Sawada had placed I-Pin and Lambo. Tsuna wasn’t entirely sure that Gokudera and Yamamoto were the lesser of two evils, but they were at least… more… Tsuna frowned. He wasn’t really sure, actually. It might just be as simple as the fact that they weren’t children and they didn’t climb all over him once they started at each other. Usually. …If it did lead to that, at least, it’d only be Gokudera… who was much bigger than both the kids combined. But the chances of that happening were less than the kids’, so Tsuna would bear it.

Attempting to mentally force the rest of the people from the room so that he could enjoy his meal, Tsuna nervously put what remained of breakfast onto his plate and started to eat. He had almost made it onto seconds when it suddenly occurred to him that he should be hurrying up more than this or he’d be late. Still, he hadn’t woken up and felt rushed…

But then… _Mama never woke me up this morning…_ Glancing over to his classmates, Tsuna frowned. Something was missing. The only reason he had gotten up was because the two terrors had broken into his room…

Gokudera blinked, dropping his fork as he jerkily turned to face Tsuna, who had been idly staring off into the space surrounding the silver-haired male. “Ah, Tenth, do you need something?”

“Wait! We don’t have school today!” Tsuna suddenly shouted as he snapped from his daze, bewildered. This caused the people around him to stop stuffing their faces and look at him with a variety of expressions. Gokudera in particular, who had just gotten yelled at in the face, looked extremely startled. He blinked dumbly for a moment, wondering where the outburst had come from.

“Ah… _we_ know that, Tsuna,” Yamamoto pointed out, chuckling as Gokudera finally relaxed, getting lightly punched by him in the temple.

Tsuna eyed the pair of them guardedly. He had suddenly become extremely suspicious. Sure, they had an unnerving habit of always showing up for one particular reason or another, but there didn’t seem to be any obvious reason, which meant that either they had both come here on their own time or that Reborn had coerced them… “Then what are you _doing_ here?”

“I called them,” Reborn explained suddenly, standing in Bianchi’s lap and turning to face Tsuna as he confirmed the boy’s fears. “You should hurry up and get dressed, or you’ll be late for your own meeting.”

“Meeting?!” Tsuna groaned loudly, rolling his eyes. “What can I possibly do to get ready for a meeting I didn’t even know was happening?”

“You can start by getting dressed,” came Reborn’s reply. “No sensible man wants his women to see him conducting business in his sleeping attire.”

Tsuna blanched, horror-struck. Glancing down he realized that he did in fact come down in his teal pajamas, but he hardly cared if any of these people saw him in them, whether they were expected or not. He had given up trying to be prepared for their unwarranted intrusions. Then the second implication struck him, and he grew buggered, flailing his arms about wildly. “You don’t mean—”

Reborn smiled slightly, a very visible sign that he was contemplating forcing Tsuna to move faster. “I told you, it’s a meeting. You can’t call a family meeting in order and not call out the family, Tsuna.”

…

_Family._ Tsuna had really come to find the word set off a multitude of emotions to pummel his brain into a bloody, limply whimpering pulp. Still, even he could admit that his life had become a lot less dull. Yamamoto and Gokudera both grinned widely at him as he stood up to go change, the one on the right’s expression only slightly marred by the hastily applied bandage. Instantly the moment was lost as Yamamoto glanced over and laughed at Gokudera’s expression of sheer joy (something reserved strictly for directing at Tsuna at the least explicable moments, at least in Tsuna’s mind), and the silver-haired teenager attempted to ram a rolled up pancake down the taller male’s “stupid face” while the other protested that this wasn’t proper table etiquette with even louder laughter.

The Tenth Vongola boss wearily mounted the stairs, his dining room suddenly exploding into a riot as I-Pin and Lambo joined Gokudera in vanquishing whatever threat Yamamoto appeared to be in their eyes. Bianchi watched Tsuna disappear up the stairs before allowing her eyes to fall back to her brother across the table. _It’s not any different_, she wondered, studying him. _But he’s hiding it. He’s so painfully obvious… expecting a punishment from the last two people who would be willing to give it to him. She’d_ sure as hell give it to him, if it were her place to do so. But Reborn, her beloved, had asked that she stay out of this one and leave it up to the immediate family to sort out. Immediate family meaning of the Mafia sort, and not of blood, of which she was the only one present. She sighed softly and wondered if any of those boys would be bothered to even try; it was her woman’s intuition that recognized the problem and if any of _them_ possessed such a gift she’d be concerned. Well, except for maybe her brother… he sometimes came off as a damn housewife in his efforts to impress his boss.

From upstairs, Tsuna could still hear Yamamoto’s unabated laughter. It echoed dimly around his room as he got dressed into something that wouldn’t make him look _entirely_ ridiculous in front of Kyoko Sasagawa. The girl was angelic and sweet and had… would _normally_ have Tsuna’s full attention, if it weren’t for the sheer chaos that happened around him that he was always desperately trying to hide from her. He didn’t have to really worry about what Haru Miura would think or have to hide anything from her if she showed up, because the girl was eccentric and odd and didn’t really seem to think Tsuna could do wrong—even though in their first encounters she had assaulted him and threatened him quite angrily. No, at this point she was fully enamored with the prospect of becoming Tsuna’s future wife and helping him in any means possible, including the Mafia. Sighing, Tsuna pulled his shirt over his head and smoothed it down. “At least it won’t be all the Mafia nonsense, with Kyoko-chan here…” he muttered. “But what else could it be?” They had had some pretty ridiculous get-togethers before, ranging from vacations on islands, to snowball battles to trips to zoos—none of which ever went as planned. Walking across his small room, Tsuna tidied up as best he could before making his way to the window above his desk. Hoisting it open, he sighed. “Why can’t any of them be _sane_?”


	2. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Vongola family has come together to to enjoy a well needed break. But every well-meaning party can have shadowy, cracked corners, and Tsuna's starting to notice. But is anyone else? And is it really his place to interfere with his friends' lives?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just another old snippet to upload! Just a little cheery scene before things move on :)

Ryohei Sasagawa stood in the street outside of the Sawada home and watched as the Vongola Cloud Guardian Kyoya Hibari perched nimbly on the windowsill to Tsuna’s room before slipping inside. Hibari was the calm and collected head prefect at Namimori Middle School, where they—the Vongola, sans the Thunder and Mist Guardians—attended. He was aggressive to a fault, but Ryohei would probably be the last person to actually fault him for it, since it oftentimes inspired Ryohei to do something quite extreme. For whatever reason, he had a predilection for arriving through the window. He no longer had to slide open the thing himself, at least not when he was expected, which Hibari was. They all were.

It was a meeting.

Well, that’s what that baby Reborn was calling it. There were no immediate threats for the time being, so mostly it was just “family time”. Ryohei kind of liked the sound of it. As the Sun Guardian, he was a part of a family of extreme bad-asses. He tried to concentrate on this fact and pump himself up for the inevitable.

Kyoko stood beside him and eyed him curiously. “Big Brother, are we going in now?”

Ah, Kyoko. He forgot she was standing there. “_Right!_” he shouted vigorously, pumping a fist in the air. “You go through the door, I’ll see you there!”

“Oh?” Blinking, Kyoko gave him a gentle smile and laughed. “Just don’t bust a hole into Tsuna-kun’s wall, okay?” she asked, patting him on the arm before dashing lightly across the street and up to the door. Ryohei waited until Mrs. Sawada had greeted his sister and let her inside before returning his grey eyes to the task at hand.

“Hmph. It’s a challenge I must accept! And so simple! It’s not _extreme_ enough to bother with…” For a moment he stood there, glaring at the window, wondering how he could make this mission of his any better. It was such a simple home… it was just a matter of scaling the side up to the second floor window and hopping inside. Hell, he had watched Hibari simply hop up onto their fence, hop up and climb on it so many times… it looked so effortless. Maybe he should try doing it backwards… but he’d be more likely to put a hole in the wall. Good thing Kyoko warned him to be a bit moderate… but that took the fun out of it all. Ah well.

Snorting to himself, Ryohei thumbed his nose and then took off at a madman’s dash and gave a good whoop, hopping up over the fence and into the Sawada household’s yard before throwing himself at the base of the house. It shuddered slightly with the force of his attack but then accepted him, allowing him to claw his way madly up the siding until he managed to hook his arms up over the windowsill, panting heavily. He had pulled himself halfway through the window when he realized that everyone in the small room was now staring at him.

“I have arrived!” he shouted loudly, a wide grin on his face as he quickly tugged the rest of his body into the room… only to lose his balance in the tiny window and tumble onto Tsuna’s desk and then to the floor beneath it. He blinked, his face inches away from a pair of black dress shoes.

“Reckless and noisy as usual,” Hibari murmured, taking a small step back so that Ryohei could have enough space to untangle himself. The raven-haired male stared down his nose at his classmate with sheer and utter detachment. This sort of thing wasn’t Hibari’s style really, but Ryohei couldn’t help but get pumped seeing the guy actually bother to show, whatever the prefect’s reasons.

“Hey, Ryohei-senpai! Great landing!” Yamamoto applauded him, clapping from where he sat. The platinum-haired boxer beamed fiercely at the younger boy, finding him just in time to see Gokudera jab him in the ribs harshly. They were sitting together on Tsuna’s bed with Lambo and I-Pin. Gokudera looked as though he was about to explode, Lambo clinging to his arm and suddenly bawling as loud as an ambulance siren. There was no way to tell what had set the boy off, but Ryohei guessed that Gokudera was being a bully anyway; the guy really didn’t know how to deal with kids.

Hibari strode across the room, pronouncedly stepping over Ryohei in the process. He leaned down to eye Lambo’s snotty, teary-eyed face. Holding back the desirable urge to smack the gift of life out of the stupid herbivore, Hibari instead allowed a very slight smile to grace his lips. “You’ll shut up, won’t you little cow? Or I’ll bite you to death. I’m ready either way.”

Lambo froze, his eyes suddenly growing immensely large and even more watery than before. Had it been anyone else to threaten him, the child would have dug around in his afro for a random weapon and launched an attack (or just start crying even louder)… but this was Hibari, and Lambo had already tried that a few times before. It had finally begun to sink in that Hibari was not someone to do this to. After a few moments of silence had passed, Hibari smiled minutely, nodding. “Good. You’re marginally not as stupid as I thought you were,” he decided, standing back up and walking back to his corner of the room. He stepped over Ryohei once more, who had yet to actually pick himself off the floor.

“Oh, hurry up and sit down before you miss out on the cake!” Haru chided him merrily, dishes balancing along the length of her arms as she entered the bedroom. Tsuna glanced over at her, exasperated. Apparently his mother had been told about the meeting, because there hadn’t been any left-over cake from breakfast… It didn’t help matters that Haru was dressed in maid cosplay. Glancing back over to Yamamoto and Gokudera, it suddenly became apparent that he didn’t have time to be exasperated.

I-Pin’s Pinzu Bomb counter was at six.

“Oh no!” he shouted, throwing his arms over his head and bolting onto his feet. “I-i-i-i-Pin, I-Pin, calm down!” he stammered as he danced wildly in place. Yamamoto and Gokudera turned to look at the girl who had suddenly stopped hopping around the bed and was profusely sweating while latched onto Yamamoto’s elbow.

“Hm? Do you need the bathroom, I-Pin?” Yamamoto asked her nicely, smiling at her.

Gokudera’s eyes narrowed as he swore, practically climbing on top of Yamamoto as he lunged over the boy’s lap to get at the little girl. “Let. Him. _Go_!” he grunted dangerously, tugging at her. I-Pin’s grip was like steel, however small her arms were.

“Hahaha, Gokudera, it’s okay, I can take her!” Yamamoto beamed, sweat-dropping.

“Who’s bright idea was it to have I-Pin and Hibari-san in the same room!?” Tsuna cried, rushing over to help remove the tense girl. Haru stepped back out of the way, blinking.

“Hm? Tsuna-san, your cake…” she said, glancing back at the untouched cake on the table.

“I don’t need cake, we need to get I-Pin outta here!”

“But she hasn’t had her cake yet!” Kyoko pointed out. “She was so excited for it, maybe it just made her need to go faster… I can take her, it wouldn’t be right to let Yamamoto-kun take her,” she added, beginning to stand. The purple-haired girl also sitting at the table glanced nervously up, but she was too timid to say anything. She represented the Mist Guardian; whatever skittishness she would exhibit, the shy girl was very much an ally to the chaos here. Anxiously she glanced over her shoulder to where Tsuna had run.

“Ano… Boss…” she murmured.

“She doesn’t need the bathroom!” Tsuna wailed loudly, not hearing Chrome Dokuro speak up over his thumping heartbeat as he fumbled alongside Gokudera. “She needs to cool outside! Then she can have cake!” he rambled, panicking. He really didn’t want to think about what would happen to the house if the little girl blew her top here, with everyone present.

Having nearly gotten stomped on several times now, Ryohei pulled himself apart before hopping up onto his feet and pumping his fists into the air, nearly forgetting Hibari’s close proximity and causing the boy’s hair to ruffle. He grinned sheepishly at the reproachful boy. “Would you care to do something about this?” Hibari murmured darkly, his eyes glancing over to I-Pin. She was down to three.

A challenge!

Grinning manically, Ryohei spun around and lightly knocked Tsuna over to get closer to the problematic little girl. Tsuna flew face-first into the wall beside his bed, wincing loudly. “I have what you need!” Ryohei demanded loudly, reaching out for the girl and lightly yanking her away from Yamamoto. Gokudera and Tsuna gawked at how easily this had been accomplished, but Ryohei was already climbing onto Tsuna’s desk. Saluting everyone in the room, Ryohei jumped from the window into the yard and dashed quickly down the street. This whole window thing was turning out to be much more fun than he initially thought. They slammed through several doors and vaulted one set of stairs. “Ah, we’re here!” he announced happily. As carefully as his feverish pace could manage, Ryohei set I-Pin down on a table and began rifling around through a drawer beneath her.

In a totally unprecedented event, I-Pin’s Pinzu counter had deactivated from sheer shock, somewhere around two, most likely at the moment Ryohei accosted her with his extreme behavior. She had yet to come into such an extreme close encounter with the exuberant male, and by the time she recovered from the initial onslaught… she had found herself… here. Wherever here actually was…

“There. Now you will be extreme, without all the fuss! But the fuss is fun,” Ryohei rambled, popping vaguely back into view. He was vague not because he was somehow wavering from all the excitement, but because I-Pin couldn’t see him, of course. If only she would use glasses… From I-Pin’s perspective, he appeared to be some sort of overly-excited angelic person, what with the bright eyes, happy expression, and white hair. He was pretty, but nowhere near as pretty as the boy who resembled her master, that charming prince with dark hair and eyes and pale skin and… ah, she shouldn’t think of him, it made her so nervous!

“Nah!” I-Pin blinked. Her entire world had suddenly gone dark on top of its already extreme blurriness.

“Sweet!” Ryohei beamed proudly, pumping a fist. “You’re totally cooled down now! Shades are the ultimate cool, other than scars and stitches!”

Just moments after Ryohei jumped from the window, the rest of the occupants of Tsuna’s room were at a loss. “I wonder if he made it…” Tsuna murmured darkly, gloom hanging over his head. So far, he hadn’t _heard_ any loud explosion... _Hiiiieee… If I-Pin’s bomb kills Nii-san, Kyoko-chan will never forgive me!!_ Fretfully he sat back down at his table, running a hand through his hair and smiling nervously at Kyoko, who simply smiled back.

“Hahaha, Gokudera, are you comfy?” Yamamoto asked, scratching the back of his neck.

Suddenly realizing that in the midst of his shock he was still sprawled on his stomach across Yamamoto, Gokudera’s face turned bright red and he practically leapt back off the boy, nearly sitting atop Lambo in the process. “Damn baseball idiot! You don’t even know how much danger you were in!”

“From you being on my lap?”

“From the _brat_, you numbskull!” Gokudera shouted, gesturing with his hands. Lambo tried to tug his tail out from beneath Gokudera fitfully until Gokudera smacked the little boy away from him and onto the other side of the bed.

“Gotta… stay… calm…” he sobbed noisily, completely forgetting the threatening presence of the Namimori head prefect just across the room. “Eh?” He had almost begun to dig around for the Ten-Year Bazooka when something cold plopped into his lap. Looking up, he saw Haru beaming down on him. “Cake!” he screamed happily, grabbing the confection off the plate and shoving the whole piece into his mouth. “Mrgh mrgh!” he continued, his mouth full. Haru waited for a moment before placing another piece in front of him.

“Try to _taste_ this one, Lambo,” she chided happily before continuing on her rounds. The events of the past few minutes had done little to shake her resolve. After all, if she couldn’t handle a simple meeting such as this, how could she ever expect to be a good wife for Tsuna? She turned to serve the brooding pair from Kokuyo, but got stopped short by the sudden pounding noise coming swiftly up the stairs outside the door.

The door to the bedroom suddenly swung open wide, sending the unsuspecting Ken Joshima flying into Chikusa Kakimoto to avoid getting smacked heavily. The blonde scrambled hectically trying to get a hold onto his old cell-mate so that he wouldn’t fall, but the other boy didn’t move to help him so he collapsed painfully into a heap at his feet, growling and rubbing himself. “I’m _back_ from the extreme!” Ryohei yelled triumphantly as he posed in the doorway, I-Pin sitting on his shoulder. The little Chinese girl was now equipped with severe shades with a little rope to hold them to her head. “She is the ultimate badass cool now!” he added, giving her a high-five. He had spent three extra minutes teaching her to do it before they left his house, and it definitely made her look even cooler.

“_Hahii_! Don’t curse in front of her, you big idiot!” Haru demanded angrily, stomping her foot repeatedly. “Put her down so she can have her cake!”

“Down you go. Make way for the extreme little lady!” Ryohei cheered, hoisting her off his shoulder and placing her on the floor. She made her way cautiously across the floor, having adjusted now to the darkness from the shades but not taking any chances in such an infested room. She stopped between Chrome and Kyoko and sat at the corner of the table, where Haru placed her two slices of cake, to be fair since she gave that much to Lambo. She eyed Ryohei crossly before handing him his own piece as he threaded his way back to the far side of the room.

Back to the Kokuyo gang; Haru was determined to finish her job so that she could sit beside Tsuna _finally_. She glanced over at the pair by the door apprehensively. Approaching them, she attempted a friendly sort of smile.

“I’ll take his,” Chikusa commented idly, gesturing to Ken with a slight tilt of his head. The blonde was sitting huffily on the ground beside Chikusa’s feet, dusting himself off angrily. Haru’s brow raised but she handed both plates off to the boy with glasses without a word.

“Kakipi, what the hell are we doing here?” Ken growled as Haru stepped away from him, rubbing his shoulder from where the door still managed to nick him.

“Eating cake,” Chikusa responded deftly, leaning over to place Ken’s plate on the ground before him.

“What the shit? I’m not your fucking dog!” Ken demanded incredulously, swiping the plate onto his lap and glaring up at the smirking boy. Haru eyed the pair apprehensively and quickly moved to go to her seat, too frazzled by this point to notice Ken’s swearing. She was done with her job, now it was time for her reward—cake and Tsuna. She concentrated heavily on this fact, a gloomy aura encompassing her for a moment as she stressed herself out with her thoughts before wiping the slate clean and composing herself.

Ryohei, cake in hand, eyed the desk once more as he now stood before it. Hibari’s slice of cake was sitting on the far corner beside the boy. Being a bit careful not to knock the plate off, Ryohei hoisted himself up onto the desk. Flashing one final excited grin to Hibari, who remained where he stood in the corner beside the desk, Ryohei began to enjoy the fruits of his labor while glancing around the room.

It was a small room for such a gathering, but it definitely made it seem much livelier. Of course, for obvious reasons this group didn’t really need the boost. Still, there were twice as many people present as there usually would be. All the Vongola guardians were present and accounted for, as well as the Chrome’s two inherited lackeys, the kids, and the girls. It was actually a fairly big to-do compared to the usual get-togethers that happened on the school campus. This naturally meant that it was also more volatile… particularly due to the kids’ and the Kokuyo duo’s presence. Hibari just typically didn’t show face, for the simple fact that it didn’t interest him for one reason or another. In fact, it was unclear as to why he had been showing up more often recently.

Besides the four on the bed, Ryohei on the desk, and Hibari in the corner beside him, the rest of the room was abuzz with activity. Sitting around the small table on the floor were Tsuna, Kyoko, I-Pin, and Chrome, the only female guardian. Nervously she kept her eyes on her hands as they fidgeted. She had a hard time looking up for long periods of time simply because she had been given the seat facing Tsuna. Kyoko smiled to her, laying her hand on top of Chrome’s and talking to her, trying to make her feel more at ease. The previously empty seat at the table was reserved and now claimed by Haru, dressed in what was actually a fairly _normal_ cosplay, for her tastes.

The two who quite frankly were hardly ever around were the ones positioned on the wall opposite of the bed, but closer (apparently a bit _too_ closer) to the door than to Hibari. They and their “boss” Mukuro Rokudo (along with Chrome technically) were what remained of the Kokuyo gang that had once threatened the Vongola. Ken, the wild looking blonde, was still grumbling where he sat while his partner Chikusa stood beside him, quietly eating away at his cake. Chikusa was probably more silent than Hibari, which said a great deal about the boy. He and Ken had only recently become comfortable enough to hang around the same areas as the Vongola, so long as they were following Chrome, which they also did with a certain amount of unease. Mukuro, their leader of sorts, shared the position of Mist Guardian with Chrome to a degree. He was an unusual boy, particularly a bit hellish. He had agreed to tell the two Kokuyo boys to answer Reborn’s summons simply on the grounds that it would aggravate them and that it would possibly make Chrome a bit more at ease with the situation; after all, she had the shortest history with the family, and he, Chikusa, and Ken, had once been enemies with them. Still, if the Vongola were going to get caught up in one of Reborn’s usual random events, he had warned his friends they may bail quickly.

The gathering ate their cake in relative peace. There was quiet murmuring and grumbling from some of the members present, which was soon joined by Lambo’s soft snores. Once everyone was done, Haru and Kyoko rounded up the dishes and left the room to go wash them. Chrome glanced nervously about the room, allowing her eye to fall onto Chikusa and Ken; the blonde looked exasperated but compliant, and his friend at least nodded to her silently. She smiled, a bit more reassured.

“So, Boss…” she began, her eye now turning to Tsuna.

“A-ah! Yes, hi, Chrome!” he stammered, snapping back from his thoughts to grin awkwardly at the girl. “Oh, I’m glad you came, even though I don’t really get why we’re having a meeting and all,” he said, glancing around the room. _Reborn called the meeting and he’s not even here…_

Chrome blushed slightly, raising a fist to her lips as she coughed apprehensively. “Maybe Reborn just wanted to see that everyone is doing okay?” she offered. “I know a lot of us haven’t really touched base lately…”

“I guess,” Tsuna replied, frowning at the table. Admittedly, he’d been worried lately about how everyone was taking things… and what with Reborn’s news last night… maybe Chrome was right. “He’s not a very straight-forward person,” Tsuna grumbled.

The door to Tsuna’s room suddenly burst open again, only this time Ken couldn’t get out of the way because of Chikusa’s legs and got smacked across the nose. “The_ fuck_ is wrong with you people and doors?!” he howled, rubbing at his jaw in annoyance. Lambo awoke from the suddenness of the raised voice, rubbing his eyes blearily before trying to roll over and regain his sleep.

Bianchi stood framed in the doorway, her arm still outstretched from when she had shoved the door. Allowing it to fall to her side, the young woman glanced casually to her side. “I wouldn’t be nearly so cool if I was,” Reborn replied to Tsuna, appearing beside Bianchi.

“Ah, there you are!” Tsuna said, blinking rapidly. Of course Reborn would show up right as he’s talking about him! Tsuna suddenly shifted his attention back to Bianchi. _Oh no…_ he sighed to himself. More trouble.

“Gah! Big sis…” Gokudera yelped, his expression turning to horror. Tsuna slouched forward, resting his head on the cool table and eliciting a surprised squeak from Chrome. Of course, Bianchi had been downstairs this entire time and had forgotten to put the goggles back over her face. The offending objects hung around her neck loosely, uselessly. Her brother wrapped his arms around his stomach and fell over in pain, right back into Yamamoto’s lap.

“Oh, Hayato…” Bianchi sighed, shaking her head. _I was right, no one has bothered to say anything, they’re all far too complacent. If they’d just give him proper discipline, he wouldn’t have time to be so sick… wretched maybe…_

“Hm?” Yamamoto intoned, tilting his head and blinking at the guy who had flopped onto him. He raised a hand momentarily, but then let it drop back to his side. A wide grin replaced the previous blank expression. “Hahaha, you must really like it there,” Yamamoto pointed out.

“I… am going to… hurt you…” Gokudera attempted to threaten, but was failing miserably. If only the damned woman wouldn’t take those damn goggles off every time she left them! And now that he’d seen her, she just bloody _stood there_ glaring apprehensively at him! What the hell?

“Oh? Is this after you’re done with your nap?”

“…_kill_…”

“Haha! You’re so energetic when you’re sick. If I didn’t know better I’d think you were faking!” Feebly Gokudera reached out, grasping Yamamoto’s collar in his fist and jerking the boy closer, glaring as dangerously as he could under the circumstances… but the idiot only beamed at him, laughing in his face, his warm breath accosting Gokudera. The silver-haired male growled mutely.

Ryohei crooked an eyebrow at the boys’ exchange, a bit miffed. Those two certainly had a particular way of doing things, and while it hadn’t bothered him _before_… it seemed to be escalating now. At first, he had written it off to extreme passions, as both boys were very obviously zealous about their agendas… in their own ways (it was easily noticed by Ryohei, who was always looking for passionate people, which is why this family business was so up his alley). But, if Ryohei’s memory served him correctly, last night was the first time that one of them seriously injured the other in their strange methods.

…Yet here they were, the next afternoon, acting the same as always.

Ryohei wasn’t sure if it was this that ticked him off or the fact that no one else in the room said anything. _He’d_ say something, but he wasn’t good with words. He had always let his fists do the talking, after all. And damn if he didn’t want to “talk” to Gokudera… He scoffed to himself in annoyance. Either the guy had no shame or he was too weak to admit he had done anything wrong.

Glancing up at her brother, Kyoko blinked. He looked deep in thought, having suddenly folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes, nodding to himself. She glanced over to see Hibari scowling at him. “So what are we going to do, Reborn?” she asked quickly, turning to look back at the doorway. Everyone’s mood on the far side of the bedroom was dropping quickly, and it was the only thing she could think of to help.

“I’m open to suggestion,” Reborn admitted, watching them all. “Some place outside and in the open would be a good place to start.”

“We should go down to the park!” Yamamoto offered cheerfully, glancing up as best he could as Gokudera still had a grip on his collar and refused to part with it. “Maa, Gokudera, you look so womanly from up close!”

The fist that came up and hit Yamamoto moved so quickly that for a moment Yamamoto hadn’t realized that it was Gokudera’s. He winced, hissing between his teeth for a moment as he strained to keep the ever-present grin on his face, his visible eye crinkling. Gokudera blinked up at him, gawking slightly, and then his eyes took notice of where his hand had landed the blow—across Yamamoto’s left temple, right above the bandage. His arm shot back down to his side as he was unable to hide his distressed expression for a moment, mentally cursing himself.

The only people who would have noticed from watching the pair at that moment were Ryohei, Hibari, and Bianchi. However the loud smack that Gokudera’s fist had made when it connected caught everyone’s attention. A moment of silence passed, growing more and more awkward as it lengthened. “I’m sorry,” Yamamoto murmured apologetically, his smile tilting to the side. Gokudera threw his arms over his face to hide his expression.

With Yamamoto’s apology, it was as though time started moving once more, and life flooded back into the room. Tensions relaxed, and people once again began glancing nervously around the room at each other, murmuring. Hibari had noted the event with a bit of curiosity, but the others’ reactions in particular interested him. Particularly Ryohei, whose hands were gripping the edge of the desk he sat on. The one hidden from most people’s view, the one closer to Hibari, nearly splintered the wood. Gokudera quietly got off of Yamamoto and sat back down beside him.

“That is a great idea, Yamamoto,” Reborn agreed, nodding his head. “We will go to the park!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interested in checking out my original writing or spying on my three furbabbies’ antics? You can find us [here](http://nikkitapierrottie.com/)!


	3. The Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parks exist so that the general public can relax, but Tsuna hasn't honestly known relaxation in quite a while. The group has split up a bit, until just the core, socially-active members of his family attend the outing. It's time for sun, shade, water, and... is that a duck?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the last fully written chapter that's already done, but 5-7ish are nearly done and shouldn't take long! The drama tag's coming off folks (if you understand that reference, hooray!!). It all starts rolling next time! The original posting of this chapter was a standalone, 'cos if I recall I wasn't uploading "Sette" online publicly but dearest Foo enjoyed a part of the story too much not to share with her!

The park, Tsuna reflected, was probably not the_ brightest_ idea ever (though his friends weren’t exactly the brain factory). There were only so many things one did at a park. In his opinion, parks should be used for nice, secluded walks with a date, picnics… _that_ sort of thing. Not a Mafia outing.

For starters, there were other people present. Normal people up to _normal_ things… Tsuna would’ve liked to think that not so long ago he would have been one of these types… but it was unlikely. Before Reborn had come so forcefully into his life, he pretty much slouched about in his bedroom all the time. The sort of people who hung around parks, he reflected, were outdoorsy, popular, sporty… He glanced over to Yamamoto, who seemed fairly excited about this whole business. Yeah, like Yamamoto. It was hard to see anyone else in his horrible little “family” going to a park of their own free will. Ryohei might’ve, but due to his behavior he’d probably have been escorted out of the park pretty quickly. The arcade seemed like it would be a better choice, for most of them. Or a boardwalk _with_ an arcade…

“So, now that we’re here…” Tsuna started, glancing nervously at everyone. “What are we doing?”

“Relaxing your minds and bodies,” Reborn responded automatically from his perch atop Yamamoto’s shoulder. He hopped down, landing easily on his feet. “Now have at it.”

“Che, what do you expect us to do in a place like this?” Gokudera complained. He was doing better now; Bianchi had opted to stay behind and get a bit of sun-tanning in during their absence. When they were leaving she was busily attempting to have Nana Sawada join her, but the woman was going to take Lambo and I-Pin shopping with her. At least they had managed to get rid of Bianchi and the kids.

“If you were relaxed, the answer would come to you easily,” Reborn pointed out bluntly, bringing Tsuna back to reality. The Arcobaleno turned to stare at the tense bomber.

“Great. Really, a ton of help,” Gokudera muttered, his eyes darkening. “What the hell would I want to do in a park anyway…?”

“A top Mafioso must always keep his composure. If you can’t be relaxed out here, in a place made for relaxation, how do you expect to be relaxed in the heat of a conflict? You’ll never be able to shield your boss that way.”

Gokudera stopped his grumbling and opted for a quietly resigned depression. Reborn was rebuking him! He’d show Reborn how relaxed he could be! But… how to do it? _How_ didn’t really matter, he just had to prove himself to the boss, before the idiot went and did something to upstage him…

“Ah, we could always play a game! That’s relaxing, isn’t it?” Yamamoto offered, placing a hand on Gokudera’s shoulder and giving the boy a shake to try and free him from his darkened mood.

_Leave it to the baseball idiot to come up with such nonsense,_ Gokudera thought to himself, until Reborn agreed easily, not even embellishing on the idea—as if it was good enough as stated. _Damn him! Why is it that Reborn always seems so much keener on that bastard than me? I’m the only one worth anything to protect the boss!_ “What game do you have in mind?” he said, gritting his teeth as he tried to smile at the boy. He caught the hand still on his shoulder out of the corner of his eye and swatted it away. He hadn’t even noticed the damned thing.

“Ah, haha! Don’t know really. The nets aren’t up yet,” Yamamoto suddenly realized, glancing to where the nets would normally be placed.

“You’re useless,” Gokudera grumbled, sighing. Of course the idiot wouldn’t be able to follow through… and no one would fuss him for it.

“In a family, when one member is useless, it spreads.” _Fucking Reborn!_ Gokudera thought. Yamamoto laughed, holding his stomach. Next to him, Gokudera growled noncommittally. Tsuna fitfully watched the two of them.

“_THE LAKE!!_”

Tsuna jumped three feet off the ground and somehow found himself on the other side of Gokudera and Yamamoto, huddled on the ground with his head hidden beneath his arms. He didn’t really understand what had happened until Yamamoto gently prodded his arms. Unfurling himself, Tsuna opened his eyes and found Yamamoto crouching down in front of him. Smiling warmly, the boy rubbed a hand on Tsuna’s skull. “It’s cool. He’s just excited,” he explained, jerking a thumb at a pair of sneakers nearby.

“Why do you always have to freak Tenth out, Lawn-head?” Gokudera shouted at the other boy, glaring daggers.

Ryohei scowled, clearly believing that the other boy was being obscene. “Sawada knows what it’s like to feel burning passion! It’s extreme! You just don’t know how to care about anything so deeply, Squid-head! You’ve never even tried to break the limit, I bet!” Turning to gesture dramatically at the two near the ground, Ryohei stared them down. “Sawada, Yamamoto! We will swim to the extreme!”

Tsuna blanched. He was hoping he’d never have to witness the horror of Ryohei’s “swimming” ever again. Yamamoto climbed to his feet, dusting his knees off. “Haha! I’ll go, senpai!” Yamamoto agreed, beaming. “It _is_ a pretty good day for it.”

“And the rest of you? Are you all prepared to go to the limit!?” he demanded, eyeing the rest of the group. “Tch… Squid-head, you should stay with Sawada, he doesn’t look well enough!”

Gokudera rolled his eyes. “Che, like I was planning on coming with you losers.”

Yamamoto grinned weakly at his friend before glancing himself over. “Haha… ah, Ryohei-senpai, we don’t really have our swimsuits either.”

“Pah!” Ryohei intoned, thumping a fist against his chest. “We don’t need swimsuits! It’s not extreme if you take the time to go and change!” As he said this, Ryohei ripped his shirt up over his head and kicked off his shoes.

“Ah, I see, I see,” Yamamoto commented, nodding. Without further ado, he tugged off his jacket and began yanking his shirt over his head. Ryohei was tugging at his pants when Tsuna jumped up in a panic.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” he demanded, glancing around the rest of the park.

“Hm? Going swim, of course!” Ryohei returned, frowning at Tsuna as he removed his pants, reducing himself to his briefs. Yamamoto was busily unfastening one of his belts.

“You can’t just strip in public places!” the brunette cried.

“But it’s not any different from our actual swimsuits really,” Yamamoto pointed out, removing his second belt. He was fumbling with his zipper when Gokudera suddenly stepped over and smacked the back of his skull.

“Hey, what gives, Squid-head?!” Ryohei growled, raising a fist. “There’s no need for that!”

“He’s easily encouraged, you retard! Don’t teach him bad habits!” Gokudera spat, gawking at the pair.

Tsuna bit his lip as he watched the boys start to broil. Glancing about, he spied the infant hitman standing off to the side. “Are you going to go with them, Reborn?”

The Arcobaleno shook his head. “I’m going catch a tan.”

“Boss, let’s just go over there for now,” Gokudera offered, pointing to the other side of the tree they were beneath—away from the shore. Gokudera seemed to be in a rush to get away from the other two, so Tsuna complied. He contented himself with flopping down on his back when Gokudera stopped walking, enjoying the chance to just lie down and rest.

He hadn’t realized he’d fallen asleep until he heard Gokudera mutter, “Che, what does that idiot want now?” Sitting up groggily, Tsuna rubbed at his eyes. Gokudera was standing beside him, leaning against a tree and smoking. He was glaring at the figure of Yamamoto coming their way.

In another moment or so the boy reached them. He dashed up to them beneath the shade of the tree, grinning uneasily. Blinking and losing his composure for a second, Gokudera looked Yamamoto up and down before narrowing his eyes yet again. “What the hell happened to you, baseball idiot?”

“Ah! Ducks!” Yamamoto exclaimed, nodding.

Tsuna wondered just what sort of duck the boy meant. He wasn’t about to say that ducks weren’t dangerous animals, because at this point it had been proved to him that any object or creature was in fact a tool of death, often times horrifically so, and ducks were probably no exception. Judging by the condition Yamamoto was in, at least. The boy was standing before them in his boxers, water dripping off him everywhere. His hair was matted down and dripping onto his face, so he took both his hands to his scalp and mussed up his hair a bit. The thing in particular that bothered Tsuna was the gunpowder burns. Yamamoto looked as though he had gotten several black tattoos of starbursts. This in itself had been happening frequently lately (though mostly to the boy’s clothes, and he wasn’t currently in a state of dress anyway), but the one who normally marked Yamamoto up was Gokudera… who had been standing here with Tsuna now the entire time that Yamamoto was gone. At least, he _thought_ the boy had been with him; Tsuna had fallen asleep, after all. He glanced curiously over to his friend, wondering why he was being so quiet.

Gokudera’s shoulders were shaking. A tense hand flew to his mouth, ripping his cigarette from his lips while the other hand covered his face. Yamamoto’s eyes strayed to the cigarette dangling uselessly in the boys fingers at his side; he leaned down and liberated the thing, putting it out in the grass. Tsuna gawked at this, but Yamamoto just rolled his shoulders and grinned back. Chancing a quick glance to Gokudera proved to Tsuna that the boy either hadn’t noticed his crutch was gone or was too enraged at this point to care any longer. The hand that had held the cigarette reached out and clamped down on Yamamoto’s shoulder. The tall boy blinked, eyeing the hand as though it had spoken to him. “Che…” Gokudera spat, regaining Yamamoto and Tsuna’s attention. His head was hanging, his jaw set… and he was still shaking minutely, to the point that it visibly traveled down his arm and into Yamamoto. He sighed before saying, “Let me get this straight. You were in the lake.”

Yamamoto blinked. He had thought that would have been obvious. He was quite clearly soaked. “Uh-huh.”

“Minding your own business.”

“Yeah.” Ah, Yamamoto understood now. Gokudera was in one of those moods of his where he couldn’t talk in long sentences. If he tried it usually ended badly and involved dynamite. He’d humor him; it wasn’t like it did any harm.

Gokudera’s eyebrow twitched as he sighed, chancing another regretful glance at the boy’s state of dress. “In your boxers.”

“Haha, I don’t have my trunks!” Yamamoto reminded Gokudera. He still thought that this was an ingenious concept, it seemed. However the very thought of Yamamoto having run from the lake to where he was now in nothing but his boxers at a public park made Gokudera very,_ very_ much want to get alone with Ryohei in an alley when Tsuna wasn’t looking. As it was, he couldn’t look at Yamamoto, so he kept his eyes nailed to the grass.

“…Swimming, even,” Gokudera continued, closing his eyes. _Please for the love of God tell me you at least did go swimming and didn’t just decide to go for a jog or something dressed like this the entire time you’ve been gone…_

Yamamoto nodded, his wide grin showing his teeth. “Hmm… yeah, I do that in lakes.” If Gokudera had to speak so brokenly, he could at least have a little fun with it.

“When suddenly… you were surrounded by ducks,” Gokudera said, his voice suddenly inflicting slight emotion at the word “surrounded”. He waved his free arm around for good measure.

“Yeah. They were quacking a lot.”

“…Surrounded by quacking ducks. Animals that, I might add, do not like being near large noisy moving things or people.”

Tilting his head to the side, Yamamoto frowned slightly. “Really? But they came right up to me.”

And now to actually get what_ happened_ from the airhead… “Yes, really. These quacking ducks that came right up to you while you were swimming in your boxers in the lake. They then exploded.”

“Water toys are amazing, huh?”

Gokudera’s grip on Yamamoto’s shoulder tightened considerably, but he did not respond for a moment. _Ignore it… just ignore it. He can’t honestly be _that_ stupid… he’s just fucking with you again._ “…Ducks are exploding. All around you. What did you do?”

Yamamoto glanced back over his shoulder in the direction of the lake before turning back to look at Gokudera. “I came here?”

“Okay. Ducks are exploding, so you come here.”

“Yeah.”

Gokudera resisted the urge to face-palm himself again. “…Why.”

“Ah! Well…” Raising a hand to the back of his head, Yamamoto laughed. Tsuna blinked at him. The boy was clearly embarrassed, if you knew his behavior well enough—the blush on his cheeks wasn’t really noticeable, but the way his laughter hitched and his eyebrows rose definitely proved it. “They were exploding.”

“For the love of Mother _Theresa_ what made you come here?!” Gokudera yelled suddenly, both his hands dropping to his sides and balling into trembling fists.

“Explosions are your thing, right?” Yamamoto said hurriedly, his face contorting into an odd expression. Tsuna continued to silently watch the exchange, but he couldn’t figure out that face. It was nervous, but beyond that it wasn’t one of the boy’s usual masks.

Gokudera had raised his hand to his mouth by this point, only to find that he had been filched of his cigarette. Grumbling angrily he dug around in a pocket and produced a new one, lit it, and sucked at it threateningly. “You came to me because ducks were exploding at you.”

“Heheheh… pretty much?” Yamamoto admitted, the half-hearted chuckle falling from his lips and dying out quickly.

“Hn.” Gokudera took another long drag of his cigarette, relishing the unhealthy feeling of the smoke in his mouth. “And here you are.”

It was at that moment that the sound chose to erupt. It was loud, it echoed. It sounded like a bass drum’s thud trapped in a water bubble rising to the surface and popping. This almost seemingly happened, because at the same moment an enormous plume of water erupted over the trees, in the direction of the lake.

Gokudera and Tsuna both stared off in the direction of the boom. Tsuna’s eyes grew wide and he suddenly had his hands on the sides of his head, rising into a panic. The silver-haired male simply blinked, twitched, and shifted his attention to glare at Yamamoto. The boy glanced over his shoulder at the sound. “Ah, that’s a big one!”

“They’re still_ there_?!” Gokudera shouted, his cigarette dangling dangerously from his lips.

“Ah, yeah, Ryohei-senpai told me I should find something to hit them with when they started coming from the sky.”

“You left Big Brother with exploding ducks!?” Tsuna wailed suddenly. Both boys turned to look at him. He blinked profusely at them, suddenly realizing that neither of them had even been aware he was with them during all this. They had effectively entered their own zone, as usual.

“Someone tells you to find something you can hit an exploding duck with and you come to me, idiot?”

“Hahaha! Well, you are kind of a stick!” Yamamoto shot back cheerfully. “But no, I told you, the exploding…”

Gokudera nodded, exasperated. He looked back at the trees for some sort of divine inspiration, but didn’t receive anything. The idiot was beyond divine intervention. “Right. Right. Exploding ducks. Totally my area of expertise and not yours.”

Nodding, Yamamoto followed the boy’s line of sight. “Right.”

They both turned to eye each other for a moment.

Another resounding boom shook the trees, a torrent of water flying into the sky. Faintly, the excited shout of an overzealous teenager could be heard drifting through the breeze. Tsuna’s feet were moving before the explosion had even fully registered in his mind. “Hiiiieee, Big Brother! _Guys_?!” he shouted, glancing over his shoulder as he tore off stumbling into the trees. Yamamoto and Gokudera immediately ran after him, both easily gaining on their boss, but neither actually allowing themselves to pass up the boy.

They broke through the tree line and passed the boys’ clothes, stopping at the small wooden dock.

“Ah! They got bigger!” Yamamoto exclaimed in surprise, staring at the scene.

“Huh?” Ryohei muttered, glancing back to see the trio arriving. “Ah! That is not a stick!” he shouted, pointing a finger at Yamamoto’s company.

“Will this work?” Yamamoto asked, digging his wooden sword out from his pile of clothes next to the dock.

“Yeah, just come over here and give them a good whack!” Ryohei demanded, grinning wildly. The baseball player dashed back into the water, readying himself for the next avian. Yamamoto swung hard at the incoming duck. There was no resounding thud however, only the very loud sound of a slice. The duck was split in two and fell to the water’s surface. “Eh?” Yamamoto murmured, crooking an eyebrow at it. He was rewarded with yet another explosion, only since this one was so close and caught him off-guard, he flew backward into a dock pillar.

“Gah, Yamamoto! Are you okay?” Tsuna cried out. The dock had shuddered beneath his feet! This was ridiculous! How long had these… ducks… been coming?!

Yamamoto spit out a bit of blood before carefully peeling himself off the pillar. “Ah… haha… I guess cutting them’s no good. Oops.”

“They’re not dynamite, you idiot, you can’t just cut a fuse!” Gokudera chided him in annoyance. “Those things are like grenades!”

“Ah… so it’s no use trying to stop them huh?” Yamamoto asked, laughing faintly. “Guess Ryohei-senpai’s strategy works best then.”

“What’s the dumbass doing?” Gokudera demanded, not bothering to look at the boy for himself.

“Punching them,” Yamamoto admitted, shrugging a shoulder. “They at least go back the way they came a bit before they explode… I’m gonna go find a branch, see if that’ll help.”

“Che…”

It would take them two hours before the invading birds stopped coming. Tsuna had no doubt that they were set on them by Reborn; it was obviously the Arcobaleno’s doing. Exploding ducks had never accosted Tsuna before at the park, only soft feathery ones that would get upset when he would run out of bread crumbs and start chasing him around flapping their wings and snapping with their beaks at his ankles. Yamamoto had finally managed to find a branch that he could swing without it turning into a katana and slicing the infernal things. Shortly afterwards in a fit of annoyance Gokudera had started launching dynamite at the birds as they came in, hoping to accidentally take out Yamamoto and Ryohei. Unfortunately it only made Ryohei even more zealous in his fervor, attempting to launch them as far as he could before they’d explode.

When it came time to walk home, it had taken a bit of convincing to get Ryohei to change back into his clothes, what with his underwear being soaked and his already shaky view of public decency (he didn’t live far from the park, he didn’t need to bother!). Yamamoto had simply hopped back into his pants and bundled the remaining clothes up to carry. Tsuna was surprised that Gokudera still turned to leave with Yamamoto when they split up, what with the boy being… well, energetic, wet, and half-naked.

Some things are true enough. The park might not have been relaxing, but it most certainly helped them all sleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interested in checking out my original writing or spying on my three furbabbies’ antics? You can find us [here](http://nikkitapierrottie.com/)!


	4. Miscommunications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryohei doesn't have the most tact, and he knows it. He's been known to do a stupid thing or two (or five...) when trying to express his thoughts, and it looks like he's done it again.
> 
> Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, final totally-old-but-completed story chapter posted! Now to finish up the next one for posting :)

With the short holiday—which was really just an extended weekend—now over, it was time to go about the usual business of school. However, with such a full weekend behind him, Ryohei wasn’t sure there was really that much to look forward to. It wasn’t like he actually went to classes or anything… and sure, he could go train. But really, life always seemed a bit too dull when attention was shifted from his dealings with the mafia world.

Kyoko was just starting to get ready in the bathroom when Ryohei ran downstairs to tug his sneakers on. Despite sharing the same bathroom, their individual habits made it easy-going. Ryohei would get up before dawn to go jogging and get pumped up for his day, while his sister usually got up with just enough time to shower and run to school. She was up much earlier than usual, but she did that whenever she had a group assignment… shouldn’t be anything to get concerned over, he figured.

Stopping at the foot of the stairs one more time, Ryohei shouted up, “I’m heading out, Kyoko!” He heard her muffled reply as he bolted out the door. The sun hadn’t yet risen up on the horizon; this was really quite a bit early, even for a group assignment… Maybe she had plans, with the Hana girl or someone like that. “Three times around town oughta do it,” he mused aloud, thumbing his nose as he rounded the corner near his house.

By the time he would be done with his jog, it would probably be time for him to be on his way to school. In the meantime, he could practice his punches and do a little thinking. There were never any cars or people out on the streets this early, and it was the only time of day that Ryohei didn’t mind the peace. On mornings like this, Ryohei could lose himself to his thoughts, allow himself the time it took to mull them over, seriously contemplate the issues. He hardly felt like bothering at any other time of day.

The energetic boxer had been pretty worn out last night after he headed home. The unexpected thrill of fighting off exploding ducks hadn’t exactly battered him, but emotionally he had spent himself. It felt good. He was with everyone… _nearly_ everyone… they had some fun and excitement, and if it wasn’t extreme, well he wasn’t sure what it could possibly be. Kyoko’s eyes had grown, and she even stomped around in a little dance of protest before quickly breaking down and smiling with him; she always went through all that when she thought he was pushing the limit. She was a good kid though; she had helped him get cleaned up and then they ate dinner together.

Ryohei laughed awkwardly to himself, stepping up the pace. He wondered if he would get a chance to see everyone at school today, or if it’d be another few days before they would somehow assemble. Being in a different class from them was a bit disheartening; he’d actually bother going if it meant every day would be that energetic. As it was, only Hibari was in his class, and he was never present.

Hibari was an odd one. It was hard to believe they were even _in_ the same class. Something about Hibari’s appearance made him look younger than he really was… and Ryohei didn’t see him to begin with, so it was easy to forget the boy was his age. Ryohei couldn’t honestly remember the last time he had seen Hibari in class… he’d see him around, always on the peripheral, always watching everything transpire. If something caught his interest, he’d come down from the clouds momentarily… but never for very long.

Still, the head prefect was around more than he used to be. Before they had begun all this business of the Mafia with Tsuna, it’d actually take a bit of work to find Hibari. It was almost as though Hibari was slowly losing the desire to be hidden… he wasn’t coming any closer, of course; he had always been circling around nearby, only now it didn’t take nearly as much effort to bump into the guy. Ryohei had an advantage there, but even he knew it wasn’t the best—he simply didn’t care if Hibari came at him. He’d keep on until the raven-haired male would finally tire of him and simply stalk off, no longer in the mood to put up with Ryohei’s excitement.

Ryohei could take the blows, the silence, the scoffs… Hell, sometimes the damn scoffing was just to hide a slip-up of laughter, he knew. He’d seen Hibari do the same thing to Tsuna and the others. The thing Ryohei didn’t like was Hibari’s absolute denial. Why couldn’t the guy just sit back and admit that he was having a good time? Or that he actually wanted to be around everyone? If Ryohei could see this was the case, then there really couldn’t be any point in lying for an audience. The boxer wasn’t foolish enough to think he was a know-it-all; if he could see it, anyone could. Why Hibari chose to keep up the act and to continuously lie to himself was anyone’s guess. Along that line of thought, it was definitely a better lie than Yamamoto’s—at least Hibari’s didn’t outright endanger anyone. Eh… well, the _boy_ did more than endanger people at times, but…

“Ah! Senpai!”

The voice came from a byway to his right, the suddenness of it breaking the jogger from his thoughts. Ryohei frowned, slowing down to a trot. “Huh? Oh! Hey,” he shouted, glancing down the byway towards the taller, leaner male dashing towards him. Yamamoto ran up to him quickly before grinding to a halt and shouldering his bag, grinning broadly. “You got practice this morning or something?”

Nodding broadly and gesturing towards his bat’s holster, the taller male grinned. The eye-patch was still there, though it had obviously been reapplied with a bit more skill this morning. Ryohei snorted; he could afford to spare some time talking to Yamamoto. He may even be able to get something out of the boy…

“They gonna let you play?” Ryohei wondered aloud, raising an eyebrow. He wasn’t an expert on baseball, but one could assume that you needed to see properly to hit a speeding ball… Of course, this was Yamamoto. Either his teammates would assume in his prowess that he could still pull it off, or they would become flustered and force him to sit out of practice out of concern for his well-being. Yamamoto was ridiculously well-loved by, well, _everyone_.

Yamamoto appeared to be thinking to himself, his face going through a number of expressions before he seemed to give up on it and chuckled to himself instead. “Either they will or they won’t, but I should still go, ya know?”

“I hear you,” Ryohei responded, not sure what else there was to say. The older male wondered now if he should continue this line of interrogation or let someone who would be better at it tackle the case. He was, after all, not good at this sort of thing in _normal_ situations, but Ryohei had a feeling that this was important and couldn’t be left alone for too long. No one else seemed to even pay any mind though. He sighed, scratching the back of his neck self-consciously. “Ah, hey man, are you doing okay?”

“Ah, yeah. I nearly missed my alarm this morning, you know? Slept really hard after I was done helping Pop clean up.”

Ryohei crooked an eyebrow and frowned at the handicapped boy. This member of his “family”… was seriously amazingly… something. Evasive? …It_ did_ feel like Yamamoto was dodging his advances, and not even… trying to make it seem otherwise. Was it an idiot’s bad guard or a bastard’s idea of a fake out? “Tch… you’re really something, Yamamoto.”

“Oh? Haha, Pop feeds me and keeps me going, no harm in helping him out, ya know?” Yamamoto admitted with a broad grin, a grin which stopped abruptly before it would cause discomfort to his eye. It was hard, not carrying the smile all the way through. He’d used it so many times for so long now; how broad had it grown these days?

“I’m not talking about your old man,” Ryohei muttered starkly, thumbing his nose before folding his arms tightly over his chest. “What’s he think about your _eye_, anyway?”

The grin didn’t falter; instead it transitioned into a sort of distant contemplation as Yamamoto’s visible eye glanced at the pavement. “Pop said he was surprised I haven’t gotten in more practice with bandages,” he chuckled awkwardly, shifting his shoulder to make sure his bag didn’t slip.

Ryohei watched this curiously, wondering what it was the action reminded him of, but then it hit him. A crutch. Yamamoto was using his bag, his bat, or baseball in general, as an emotional crutch. It seemed like a stretch, but Ryohei had put enough guys in the infirmary and been in the hospital himself enough to see how people would falter, gripping their crutches for reassurance. Why did Yamamoto need reassurance all of a sudden? He was the picture of confidence; if he wasn’t he probably wouldn’t be getting on Gokudera’s nerves as much as he did, and wouldn’t have the bandage on in the first place.

Sighing, Ryohei considered what the boy had admitted to so far. He had finally met Yamamoto’s father a couple weeks back, when they had a get-together at the restaurant. It’d be impossible for such a man not to be upset at the condition his son was putting himself in; it was a matter of pride, and Tsuyoshi Yamamoto was obviously a man who had his pride. Would he be secretly ashamed, enraged… or would he have been moved to action?

No, Yamamoto had grown up. If he couldn’t handle his own messes, his father wasn’t going to step in. It was still a matter of pride, only now it was both of theirs.

Pride must be worth very little to Yamamoto, Ryohei reasoned. But it didn’t make much sense. The boy had a drive when it came to winning. Why was he taking the fall here? If he kept this up he was more likely to end up dead before anyone else, second strongest of Namimori or not.

“You shouldn’t let the squid-head fuck you up like this,” Ryohei growled. “He’s going to seriously—”

“Ahh, haha. You’ve got the wrong idea, senpai. It was my fault,” the baseball player cut in, all smiles. His gaze had once again met with Ryohei’s, suddenly steady and bright.

…The idiot was covering for the guy. _Of all the stupid…_ Ryohei’s lip curled as he removed his hands from his chest and balled them into fists. “What kind of lame shit do you think you’re pulling, Yamamoto?!” he demanded loudly, his hands shaking at his sides. “The bastard nearly blasts a hole in you and you just blow it off like that’s your idea of a good time!”

“That didn’t happen,” Yamamoto said with a deft shrug, his face changing somehow. It was that drive… he looked as though he were getting ready to swing, Ryohei realized with even greater annoyance. He was taking this seriously.

“It nearly did! How close were you to being in the hospital? You probably should’ve gone to begin with,” Ryohei remarked with frustration, glaring at the eye-patch.

“Didn’t happen,” Yamamoto reiterated, his voice almost lilting.

Ryohei scowled. The boy wasn’t even trying to be clever now. He was flat out denying something blatantly obvious and offering no form of explanation. “Bullshit!”

“Maa… no one was there but us Ryohei-senpai. Who could say otherwise?” Yamamoto stated calmly, his eye glancing at the older male with concern. “What’s the matter, senpai?”

“I’m pissed.”

“Haha, I see, I see.”

Ryohei could feel his rage deflating at Yamamoto’s persistence, his stubbornness a factor that Ryohei was having a hard time overcoming. Was this the reason no one moved to aid the idiot? Tsuna had to know Yamamoto and Gokudera better than anyone else… Yet even Tsuna, the kind figurehead who had idolized Yamamoto once, who had been moved to help all of them at some point in time, wasn’t doing anything to resolve this. “Don’t you want to do something about it?” Ryohei tried to ask, frowning. An empty sort of expression materialized on Yamamoto’s face before he blinked, shaking it off and replacing it with a skeptical grin. Then he started to laugh loudly.

This was absolutely ridiculous, in Ryohei’s opinion. Yamamoto was laughing heartily, even with the damned eye-patch obviously stinging him. “Hey, _hey_! Why do you always laugh?” Ryohei grumbled. “People think you’re an airhead!”

“Oh, is there something wrong with it then?” the baseball player wondered, giving Ryohei a curious look. “Haha, sorry, sorry. It’s a habit. Didn’t mean to offend, didn’t realize you were so sensitive, senpai.”

Ryohei could almost feel his blood curling. Was this what Hibari had meant that time? It was completely infuriating and next to impossible not to act on it. “How the hell does someone get a habit like that?”

“Hahaha… guess that can’t be helped ya know?” Yamamoto mumbled softly, scratching the back of his neck. “Mm… well, it’s you… so I guess it’s not that big a deal. When Mom died, Pop wasn’t doing so good. I can’t remember so well, ‘cause I was young but… she was always laughing at everything.” His expression turned contemplative for just a moment, before it was lost beneath an awkward half-smile. “He’s doing a lot better now, so I’m happy. My old man’s everything to me, you know,” he added, chuckling.

His mother… It had seemed off that there was no woman in the Yamamoto household when Ryohei had visited, but it wasn’t his business. Hell, everyone had assumed something had happened with _Tsuna’s_ dad, Iemitsu, just because he was never home. Ryohei’s family was a very simple, easily-managed one. He was still trying to figure out how to react to things he heard at his friends’ homes, with all their different setups. But Ryohei was never known for tact. “That sounds stupid if you ask me,” Ryohei muttered darkly. “Your old man should’ve taken care of _you_, not the other way around.”

Shrugging, Yamamoto laughed yet again. “Everybody needs a bit of help sooner or later, don’t they? Besides, he knew her longer than _I_ did, so I think that means he lost more.” The raven-haired boy nodded as if agreeing with himself. “You just… do that sort of thing for people you care about, yeah? Like how you always ask us not to tell Kyoko about everything.”

Ryohei eyed the taller boy for a moment, considering how to respond to this. Then his eyes grew wide as he laughed loudly, sharp little bursts of annoyance freeing themselves from his chest. “You little shit! You _do_ know what the hell is going on!”

Yamamoto laughed, tossing his head from side to side. “That’s questionable,” he replied quickly, mirth flashing his features.

“So you’re just in blatant denial about everything!” Ryohei demanded, prodding Yamamoto’s chest with one of his fingers. “You damn bastard, how much do you actually understand?”

“Do_ you_ understand?” Yamamoto responded back, his laughter suddenly becoming a taunt in Ryohei’s mind. The platinum-haired boxer growled. “I don’t really think the point of the thing is to understand it. We just gotta be there for Tsuna, is all.”

_“What’s there to understand? Do what you want; it’s of no concern to me.”_

“You just help out for the fun of it all,” Ryohei demanded crossly. He hadn’t expected this of Yamamoto, but it’d make sense. Denial is supposed to hide something, isn’t it? And despite their personalities, their words… both of those boys got a serious kick out of this family they had become, didn’t they? Yamamoto had constantly brushed things aside, but had always been the first one to really accomplish something in their fights. Was the first one to pave the way… at the risk of bodily harm. …At constant bodily harm. The boy always got it hard and laughed it off later. And Hibari…

_“What? Am I going to the meeting? Of course not. I have no interest in cake and children. I thought I told you to delete this number.”_

Yamamoto blinked, quirking an eyebrow as the other male’s lip suddenly curled. “Eh? Don’t you do it for the rush? It’s always gotta be extreme with you, doesn’t it?”

“Makes more sense than what_ you’re_ doing,” Ryohei snarled. “I mean, what the hell? Getting your face nearly blown off by your partner is what you consider fun?”

_“Why would you bother to memorize it? Waste of time. Don’t you have training to be doing now?”_

Yamamoto wrapped an arm around his abdomen, bursting forth with loud, unabated laughter. “Haha, we’re not partners…”

_“Stop pestering me. I don’t have time for a lost herbivore.”_

The unadulterated candor of the sound behind Yamamoto’s outburst was almost too much to bear after all it had come after. Ryohei could feel his veins itching beneath his skin now. He knew he was missing something but he didn’t care anymore. “Yeah, I’m sure he’s tried to beat that information into your skull daily. What are you, a masochist? An attention whore?”

“Sure? Whatever those are!” Yamamoto said easily, flashing his teeth up at the red face before him. “That’s just how Gokudera does things.”

_“You’re worse than the usual herbivore. You are at least aware that you’re lost and don’t do a thing to correct it. You’re attempting to court death by aggravating the first predator you come across.”_

“Ah, so your way of doing things is to annoy the fuck out of people.”

“What’s _your_ way of doing things?” Yamamoto asked innocently, beaming.

_“You say that as if it means something to you. What do you expect me to do? Am I supposed to sound happy? Do you realize who you’re talking to? I’m not Takeshi Yamamoto.”_

Yamamoto barely faltered as Ryohei growled, grabbed his uniform in his fist and slammed him against the side of the building. Coughing, Yamamoto allowed his eyes to travel from the balled fist in the material of his shirt, along the arm attached to it, and finally to the reddened, scowling face before him. “Ah, I see,” he answered the gesture, laughing. “You two are kind of alike, I guess. Always gotta have so much energy!”

_“You’re too full of energy. I’m trying to sleep, do you understand that, Ryohei Sasagawa? You’re wasting your energy, I will not have you wasting mine.”_

The boy was either horribly in denial or attempting to hide it from the world. It rang deep within Ryohei’s mind, a very familiar sort of behavior that pissed him off to no end. But he couldn’t make that person see it. They were too full of themselves to care what he’d say about it.

_“You know… you really are an idiot.”_

“You know… Coach is probably—” Yamamoto began, but was abruptly cut off to find Ryohei’s lips pressed harshly against his own, a low, dangerous growl emitting from the ivory-haired male’s throat.

Ryohei felt Yamamoto’s body suddenly relax in his grip, sagging slightly. He opened his eyes to see large eyes blinking at him blankly, and all he knew was that they probably shouldn’t be that large. Or caramel colored. It hit him like a crumbling brick wall, small, hard knocks in the head. Each one knocking what he was doing a bit further into his skull. Ryohei blinked twice and loosened his grip, jerking his head away from the other boy as though he had been slapped unexpectedly.

The boxer’s brow suddenly lowered and he scowled deeply. Yamamoto’s large brown eyes stared back at him in a sort of numb shock, his back still resting awkwardly against the brick wall. …There actually were bits of brick at his feet. Ryohei’s scowl lessened as he wondered what it meant. “A… ano…” Glancing up once again to see his hands still twisted up in Yamamoto’s shirt, Ryohei released his grip on the baseball player entirely. The boy dropped the little distance to his feet silently. Turning around, Ryohei growled softly at himself. He had acted on impulse, and a rather awkward one!

Clenching a fist at his side, Ryohei scowled deeply at his feet. “Tch… You really are an idiot, Yamamoto. Just because we don’t say anything doesn’t mean we don’t see it. That goes for Gokudera too. Don’t act like shit’s okay just so other people can sleep better at night.”

And then he tore like hell back to his house to change. He wasn’t running. He was late.

And he might have just totally fucked up the family dynamic in a way that would put the squid-head to shame.

Yamamoto blinked, glancing around the early morning street. He still had practice to go to, and he needed to be there… now. Earlier, probably… they’d let him off easy but that wasn’t really the point. He had wanted to go to relax, didn’t he? Well, now he had even more reason to go.

Turning the corner quickly, Yamamoto abruptly stumbled to a halt as his feet tangled with the person he had accidentally plowed into on the sidewalk. Wincing and pulling himself back to get a good look at the person, Yamamoto suddenly flushed. Standing before the baseball player and lightly dusting himself off was Kyoya Hibari. “O-oh! Sorry!”

Hibari’s nose twitched irritably at the younger boy, but he didn’t move to reprimand him. “You should be on your way to your activities, or I’ll have to detain you.”

“Ah! Right, right! I’m sorry!” Yamamoto said quickly, raising his hands in a pleading gesture. Sheesh! _The bells haven’t even started ringing and he’s at me already!_ “I’ll be on my way right now! I don’t want to pay you a visit this early, really! Later, Hibari!” He waved a hand and shouldered his bag before breaking into a run.

Hibari watched as the taller male sprinted off down the way he himself had just come from. Takeshi Yamamoto was a special breed of carnivore, made all the more irritating a presence for this fact—he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He was one of _them_, twice over. A fake herbivore and a member of that… family. His associates by his personal system of favors and debts. Yamamoto had no current debt with Hibari, but what had just happened might as well be a new one… and there was still the eye-patch.

Hibari wondered inwardly if he could gain something from all of this, eyeing the boy’s retreating figure, when a light touch to his shoulder gained his attention. “Ah, Kyoko Sasagawa,” Hibari announced, glancing over to the girl. She stood beside him now, a polite smile on her face as she bowed her head slightly.

“Hibari-san! Aren’t you normally at the school by now?”

“Hm.” The older boy glanced in the direction of the school before nodding to himself and closing his eyes. “Your brother seems more out of sorts than usual.”

“Ah! Big Brother? I don’t see how…_ oh_,” she intoned suddenly, tilting her head to the sky. “Well, he was a bit upset when he came in last night…”

The head prefect’s eyes slid open slightly, examining her. It was said offhandedly, but she looked overly-concerned. More than the usual overly-concerned looks she had about her brother, and the girl had plenty of those as it was. “Oh?”

Nodding, Kyoko smiled apologetically. “He was really worked up from the get-together yesterday, I think. But not so much more than usual, I guess.” Her voice implied otherwise, and she was looking at the direction of their home rather than Hibari’s face. He wondered if she had possibly run into her brother on his mad dash back to their house.

“If you would, keep an eye on him. He may get out of hand again,” Hibari suggested before suddenly stepping forwards and walking back in the direction of the school. Kyoko nodded, giving the male a small wave despite his lack of attention. Hibari was an interesting friend of her brother’s, and to hear the stories her classmates would tell of him, he sounded downright scary but… she rather liked him. He just had his own way of doing things.

As she walked her route towards Namimori Middle, Kyoko hummed lightly to herself, trying to shake off the worry she felt over her brother’s expression. She hoped that whatever he rushed to do this morning, he wouldn’t make too much noise. Kyoko hadn’t gotten a chance to tell her brother about her guest staying in her bedroom. Whatever he did, she just hoped he wouldn’t start ranting out loud again; if anything, that would probably be what would wake Chrome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interested in checking out my original writing or spying on my three furbabbies’ antics? You can find us [here](http://nikkitapierrottie.com/)!


	5. School Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just another day of school after a holiday break, but there's a festival in the evening that Tsuna would love to attend with Kyoko. But school comes first, and before they can enjoy the evening, Gokudera is called into the school lounge for a "chat"...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This marks the first chapter I've worked on this story in years!! There were notes to guide me, but yeah, the actual chapter is fresh. It's so nice revisiting these characters after so long :)

“Tenth, do you want to hit up the vendors tonight during the festival? We don’t have to work them for once!”

Turning to look at his friend, Tsuna blinked groggily. “Festival?”

“Ah, yeah,” Gokudera started, jerking his head around awkwardly to glance towards the window. “The street vendor festival is tonight, you know? Don’t know why they didn’t just have it over holiday!”

“Oh… right! I spaced it… Sure, I guess. Are you guys coming over to my house first or do you want me to meet up… ah… Well, actually, it’d be better if you guys came over…” Tsuna muttered darkly, his skin paling. “Otherwise I may never get the kids ready…”

Gokudera flushed nervously, biting back the urge to protest the assumed plural; he hadn’t been intending to invite Yamamoto along—but then again, he never did. The boy just showed up everywhere, right on time. The idiot probably already assumed they were going to the festival, too… “Ah, okay, Tenth. We’ll be around before it’s time. I don’t think the idiot’s got practice tonight.”

“Yeah, he should be coming in from morning practice soon…” Tsuna admitted, casting a small glance to Yamamoto’s seat at the back of the room. That fretful feeling rose into his throat once more, but he left it alone. It was hard enough surviving a school day without a million and one distractions.

~~~

Lunch break crept up and leaped out of a bush all at once, but it hardly mattered to Hibari, who kept to himself, patrolling the halls, lounging around on the rooftop and in the lounge itself. He was in the lounge now, because the noise from the rooftop was too irritating today; it was a pretty day out and most of the students were eating their lunches on the school grounds. He perched in the window of the lounge, staring down with dark eyes at all the herbivores crowding about. Growling irritably, he rested his chin in the palm of his hand.

His school had seen its share of idiots—as a center of education there was a certain… _understood_ quantity of them in the ranks. However, this fact didn’t mean he had to abide their presence or pretend to be one of them. In fact, if they were to go so far as to have an _accident_… he wouldn’t be one to mourn their loss. The worst of them always had accidents.

A particular classmate of his had yet to have such an accident, and it was beginning to irk the boy.

Ryohei Sasagawa was a loud and painfully short-sighted headcase. Only a few matters concerned the platinum-haired brute—his boxing club, his younger sister, and (most recently) his “family”. All three matters had spurred the young man into staying behind a grade, but Hibari had seen enough of the boy’s performance records to be fairly certain that if he had attempted to move on to high school then, it would have required extensive summer school.

Unfortunately for Hibari, this meant that he would not be able to escape the boy’s presence; he had also opted to stay behind a grade, thus placing him and the idiot in the same class_ once again_. To make matters worse, they were actually in the same grade as Kyoko (Ryohei’s precious little sister) and the rest of their misguided crowd—a fact that Ryohei seemed hell-bent on getting Hibari to be ecstatic over.

Hibari would be nothing short of ecstatic the day Ryohei in all his horribly energetic and idiotic glory faded from his sights. Unfortunately, Ryohei was ultimately a denizen of Namimori, as well as a member of this “Vongola” family—a family that Hibari claimed to have no connection to despite wearing one of its prized rings, of which there were only seven. Until these things changed, Ryohei was thereby a concern of Hibari’s. He wasn’t worth fighting either, because he was in fact the fourth strongest fighter at the school. If Hibari were to fight anyone, it would probably have to be Takeshi Yamamoto, the second strongest, and thereby the closest thing to a challenge for the head prefect. Yamamoto was yet another member of the Vongola.

In fact, the top four fighters of Namimori were all members of the family. The other three… well, one was a child, another was a girl who sported a uniform from a neighboring school, and the boss—as a mafia family this was to be expected—was yet another boy who attended Namimori. However, that boy—Tsunayoshi Sawada—was not even in the rankings of top fighters, as his fighting prowess seemed to come and go only when in dire straits.

Having made his point over and over that he would have nothing to do with them, Hibari oftentimes showed up “of his own volition”. Lately, he had even been attending various meetings, though his actual participation wasn’t promised. It had been such a long-standing tradition that no one in the family verbally questioned Hibari’s presence, or his constant refusal to actually do something to prove his involvement. The family lived to see another day, and Hibari was given new and interesting challenges to deal with.

The only challenge he hadn’t been expecting was from himself.

Hibari’s interactions with others had been fairly straightforward before, the manner of which was that he simply didn’t interact. If someone threatened the safety and complacency of his school, he snuffed them. If there was any sort of interesting conflict, he’d join in and snuff it. He did not make the individual students or people in his life into flesh and blood, didn’t acquaint himself with them. It wasn’t necessary. Until the day he had entered the school lounge to find Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Hayato Gokudera—along with that infant Reborn—it had never even remotely been of interest to the boy.

He thought on this now as he stared down his nose at the duo in the courtyard, acting as suspiciously as always. It was just Tsuna and Gokudera; Yamamoto was nowhere in sight. This wasn’t such a bad thing, when it came to the peace of Namimori Middle. Yamamoto and Gokudera were regular delinquents, egging each other on, if for different reasons. Yamamoto, a well-liked local of the baseball club couldn’t seem for the life of him to wear his school uniform appropriately, slept in class, and would at times skip altogether; Hibari had had to call him on these things a number of times. The other one, Gokudera… was a foreign exchange student from Italy; the silver-haired male had an unruly attitude, smoked on school grounds, and caused a ruckus wherever he went, oftentimes directing it towards Yamamoto. The only thing that could be said of their beloved friend and boss Tsuna was that he often tried to skip out of classes (most often P.E.), and hung around with people who were bound to get him into trouble.

But without Yamamoto, their interactions seemed rather tame. Gokudera was obsessive about tending to his boss’ needs, and Tsuna was insistent that he didn’t need tending to. From what Hibari could tell, the pair were just strolling about, talking to one another. Gokudera was smoking, but that was about the most delinquency being committed.

Tsunayoshi Sawada… What a curious individual. He was known dominantly as “No-Good Tsuna” by their classmates, and for good reason. But at the same time… “amazing” was also being used now, because he was indeed doing some very amazing things of late. It had everything to do with this Vongola family business they were all tied up in.

Family… Hibari wasn’t fond of the concept. He’d been an only child, and had left his family home ages ago. He’d basically spent all his time in various major buildings of Namimori, especially the school and the hospital. His family had left Namimori, last he’d heard. He hadn’t bothered finding out where they’d gone. It hadn’t mattered.

He could remember the day that the unusual No-Good Tsuna began calling Ryohei Sasagawa “Big Brother”. The other boy wouldn’t shut up about it, even in spite of Hibari’s attempts to stop him. The boxer was so happy to have another person to join his extended family. Never mind the fact that it all started because Tsuna had a crush on Ryohei’s little sister and Big Brother was how she referred to the elder Sasagawa.

His brief conversation with Kyoko before school came to mind again. Yes, something would have to be done about _that_. Today, Hibari would have to stir things up a bit. He wasn’t pleased with what he had discovered earlier that morning, but he couldn’t become directly involved. It would imply more than he was willing to admit at the moment.

It was all a chain reaction, he mused. Perhaps it would be best to start with the igniter.

~~~

“You know, Tenth…”

“Hm? What is it, Gokudera?” Tsuna turned to look expectedly at his friend. It was obvious something was bothering him, but Gokudera was practically a genius. Whatever was troubling him would likely be beyond Tsuna’s ability to decrypt. Sure, he had an idea of _what_ the silver-haired bomber’s mind was distraught about. But that was what was _odd_—harming Yamamoto was a constant threat the boy made and attempted to act upon. Why would it suddenly trouble him… if that was truly what it was?

“A-ah… Nothing! Nothing at all. Do you know if everyone’s going to attend the festival tonight, or is it just us and the brats?”

“I… I was thinking about inviting Kyoko. Do you think she would meet up with us if the other girls came?” Tsuna wondered, blushing.

Gokudera was thankful for the distraction from his own thoughts. “Didn’t she say Chrome is staying with her for now?”

“Yeah, she did. I… I kinda suggested it at the meeting,” admitted the brunette, scratching his cheek with his finger. “Chrome was having trouble finding a stable place to stay, and we’ve run out of room at home…”

“Tenth’s ideas are always the best!” Gokudera declared, giving him a thumbs up. Before he could continue his praise of his boss, a shadow loomed up before them.

“Hayato Gokudera?”

“Yeah. What’s it to you?” he growled. He recognized the male—it was hard not to. Tall, muscular, split-chin and a pompadour… He was the second-in-command of the Disciplinary Committee, Kusakabe something or other.

“If you would, please extinguish your cigarette. You’re needed at the Disciplinary Committee’s office,” Tetsuya Kusakabe explained. He had a bit more warmth towards these particular delinquents than the rest of the Disciplinary Committee, mostly because he was aware of everything that had been transpiring lately. He was, after all, Hibari’s head subordinate.

“Tch. Why should I?”

“Gokudera… I think you should go,” Tsuna whispered into his ear.

“Y… Yes, Tenth. Fine,” Gokudera ground out, snuffing his cigarette on the bottom of his shoe. “Lead the way.”

~~~

When Gokudera entered the lounge, he turned to see the door shut behind him—he was alone in the room with Namimori’s head prefect. The small but dangerous male was perched along the far windowsill, gazing out at the mass of students in the yard. The wind ruffled his hair slightly, but he showed no sign of enjoying the breeze. If anything, the violent boy looked bored. “I apologize for calling you to me in such a manner,” Hibari murmured from his position at the window, still not bothering to physically acknowledge the other male’s presence.

Gokudera sighed in mild annoyance but reigned in his venom and chose a more civil tone. Being called into the lounge to see the head prefect, even if he was a teammate of sorts, was just in no way good. “Yeah, yeah. So what’d you want anyway?”

Still no eye contact. “How is Takeshi Yamamoto’s eye?”

Gokudera grimaced, but then quickly recovered and opted for a scowl. “Che. Couldn’t you have called _him_ in to find that out? I’m not his nursemaid.”

Hibari smirked softly, cutting his eyes to his guest finally. “No, but you are in fact the one who inflicted the damage, are you not?”

“…Hn…” Gokudera intoned, glancing back to the door. He still wasn’t sure how to talk about this… especially with _Hibari_, of all people. The prefect was asking in all seriousness, and he wasn’t one for idle conversation, so there was a fairly good chance of getting out of here faster if he just answered properly. “He heals well enough. It’ll be fine before the week is out.”

“And this is your expert opinion?”

Gokudera glared hard at the raven-haired male but could not find it within himself to become angry—Hibari was the first person to confront him on the matter and it had already been two days. The explosives expert had finally stopped wondering if anyone would even call him out for his behavior, and now this. He had a feeling his coming to terms with his actions was _exactly_ what the head prefect was waiting for. Sighing, the boy closed his eyes and thought out his words carefully. “Typically-speaking, it would require immediate medical attention and two weeks worth of treatment before that sort of thing is satisfactorily healed. I went and borrowed some supplies from Shamal to treat him with, and the idiot’s taking care of it properly. Since he takes care of his body, the odds of his eye not being able to recover before the week is out are slim. His eye’s just temporarily traumatized is all. It’s not good to have it exposed to light.”

“I see. Such things happen.” Hibari smiled suddenly, a small tweaking of his lips. He allowed himself to venture further now, more towards what his intention was. “And how do you plan on reimbursing him for his troubles?”

“Who are you to ask something like that?” Gokudera shot back in annoyance.

“Because it’s written all over your face, Hayato Gokudera.”

Gokudera balled his hands into fists and tried his best stay calm. He couldn’t rock the boat with the Cloud Guardian; it would be detrimental to the family if Hibari decided he was done with their little agreement so soon.

Sighing softly, Hibari glanced towards the door. “I could care less what you do outside of this school, but keep in mind that your actions are becoming messy—if and when they carry over to Namimori, I _will_ see to them.”

Gokudera couldn’t help himself. “What the hell are you going on about now?” he demanded.

Hibari raised an eyebrow, turning to stare blankly at the smoker. “Takeshi Yamamoto appears to be well-liked here. Your incident occurred over a holiday, so today is the first day that your classmates have seen the injury. He won’t say anything of it, so the incident should blow over easily, you think. However this morning he ran into a bit of a problem.”

This was all very unlike Hibari, but it definitely had Gokudera’s curiosity. “What kind of problem?”

“Sasagawa confronted him about it.”

“Fucking idiot…” the silver-haired smoker growled, curling his lip. “Of course it’d be him! Why’re you calling _me_ in then?”

Flipping a delicately-dangerous hand through the air, Hibari smirked. “It happened outside of school grounds, and as such I could care less. However, as both of them are students at Namimori it concerns me that the incident will escalate into my territory, and I’d rather not be bothered by it.”

“It was probably just a one-time thing,” Gokudera countered quickly. “The baseball idiot wouldn’t actually do anything to rile up that guy, so it’s cooled over already.”

“I doubt that. You _do_ know Ryohei Sasagawa, do you not?”

Gokudera rolled his eyes. Hibari was definitely baiting him—but Gokudera _knew_ the head prefect had no interest in fighting_ him_ specifically, and fighting and napping was about all the guy cared about. So, why? “…Fine then. What the hell went on this morning?”

Hibari explained quite curtly what had happened, eyeing the other male to watch his reaction. As he finished, he added, “Sasagawa does not let up on something once started; it’s a nuisance. As you are a part of the situation I assume you would want to clean it up before it escalates.”

Not only was Hibari threatening some sort of… _protection_ of Yamamoto, but he was gossiping. What. The. _Fuck_.

~~~

It was the end of the school day. Gokudera had come back from the lounge just before lunch break ended looking pretty frustrated, but didn’t share what was irking him. Tsuna was relieved for the downtime from Gokudera’s servitude so he could spend the rest of the day daydreaming about Kyoko and him having a date at the street vendor festival that night. Neither boy fully listened to their lessons until the final bells jerked Tsuna from his thoughts.

Kyoko came to stand at the side of his desk, a brilliant smile gracing her features. “I’ll see you at the festival, Tsuna-kun!”

“A-Ah! Yes, Kyoko-chan! See you there!” he yelped, jumping onto his feet to wave goodbye to the adorable little blonde.

“Come on, Tenth! Let’s get outta here!” Gokudera cried, attempting to flash his usual over-eager grin at his boss. But it faltered slightly, and Tsuna noticed. Biting his lip, the Vongola heir glanced over his shoulder one last time at the empty desk at the rear of the classroom.

Yamamoto never came into class.

_Is it really that bad?_ Tsuna wondered worriedly. Yamamoto always played everything off, so it was very hard to know how the boy honestly felt about anything. Tsuna could only feel a shadow of a vibe at best… but could anything bother the exuberant male enough that he would flat out… avoid them?

Yamamoto was one of his very first friends, and they had become friends outside of the “Mafia game” that Yamamoto always laughed about. No matter what, Tsuna desperately wanted Yamamoto to keep that cheerful playfulness going forwards. He couldn’t help but feel it was all his fault for drawing the boy into this terrible game if Yamamoto ceased to be Yamamoto. It was one of the many fears Tsuna had come to shoulder recently.

But was it already too late?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interested in checking out my original writing or spying on my three furbabbies’ antics? You can find us [here](http://nikkitapierrottie.com/)!

**Author's Note:**

> Interested in chatting with me and other lost souls? Hit us up at my discord server [here](https://discord.gg/3TMx3vs)!


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